Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. And welcome back to another episode I love the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Today, we're talking about celebrating women-owned businesses. And we're doing that because International Women's Day is coming up at the end of this week. And yes, I know I am dating this episode. I'm so sorry. I think it's an important thing. Melanie and I both own our own businesses. We're both women in business. We have this podcast together, and I think not enough women shout about what they do and the successes that they have.
Melanie
I used to be a very staunch feminist when I first started work, and I can do just as well. But over the years, I felt I haven't needed to be a staunchly feminist because it's become more accepted. But there's still a huge amount of work that we need to do. There's still more support, there's still more recognition. I think the mindset shift has helped, definitely will have helped my children, my two girls. But for a change, I don't want to harp on all the things that the world's doing us an injustice, but talking about the things that is actually working for a change.
Esther
For a change. Yes, because the title is "Celebrating", not "putting other businesses down" or not "complaining". So we're going to celebrate women owned businesses And we're going to name a few of those that are worth mentioning and naming. Melanie and I have mentioned it on many occasions before that we are members of Digital Women. And as the name suggests, it is Women. Principally, there are a few men, at least in the free group. But I think paid membership is exclusive for females. And there are so many wonderful women in that group who are doing great things. But I have to say the majority of them are one-woman bands. They are solopreneurs. And although that makes them the CEO and the CFO and all the other top levels in business, it also makes them the cleaner and the cook and the bottle washer and everything else. So branching out a bit more into businesses that are maybe larger, we have some statistics.
Melanie
And this is thanks to an article that we found written by Louisa Zhou. And so thank you for the article. It was only written in January. And she was pointing out here, which is fascinating, actually, that globally, one in three businesses has women among the principal owners. It's a lot higher than I thought it would be, actually.
Esther
Yeah, especially when you're taking in the whole of the world, and that includes underdeveloped countries, developing countries, even those that people would call third world countries. It's as an average, it is, like you say, higher than I thought it would be. Although she does go on to say that in low income countries, it is a smaller percentage. So it's maybe 20, 25% there. So one in four. But yeah, I mean, she even says that 42% of all USA businesses are owned by women, which is a lot higher than I would have said as well.
Melanie
That's startling, actually. But that's just women-owned businesses. But she says here, Only 10% of the global cross-company founders listed on CrunchBase are women. To be honest with you, a lot of that sentence confused the heck out of me. I had to reread that a few times to actually understand that. So these are the people that are the highest of high with managing lots and lots of people underneath them. And so CrunchBase would be the place that actually lists all of these businesses and all of these companies, should I say? So again, still a fair bit of work to happen there, but we're working our way up. And there is an opportunity for my two kids, both teenagers, who knows how different it will be in the next 20 years.
Esther
Yeah. And another increase is the share of women hired into leadership roles has increased by 3.6% in the last six years. So it's gone up from 33.3% in 2016 to 36.9% in 2022. So we're going in the right direction. I mean, it's not 50/50, and I wouldn't even expect it to be 50/50, but it's at least going in the right direction. I wouldn't want somebody hiring me just because I'm a female, but I think we deserve the recognition that we work just as hard or sometimes harder, to get to where we are.
Melanie
Now, there's a huge section on this article, which is by Louisa Zhou, louisazhou.com, Women in business statistics, about the US. But the percentage of entrepreneurs that are female, I found this particular point, point 10, less advanced and low income countries have an average of 38% women business owners. So women in less advanced and low income countries like Botswana, Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, they surpass their global peers with a higher women in business ownership rate, 38%. Mind blown. So Meanwhile, women from high income countries like the United States, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, and Spain maintain a strong women's business ownership rates ranging from 30 to 36% in the top 10 positions worldwide. This is just incredible, isn't it?
Esther
Yeah. And it's also incredible to see that younger people are coming into businesses as well. She mentions in another part of her study that young female entrepreneurs, so between the ages of 18 and 34, in lower income countries, have the highest participation. So that's almost 56% of female entrepreneurs are in that younger age bracket.
Melanie
This whole blog is just fascinating. I've seen a trend of more entrepreneurship happening. As you know, I mentor local businesses here in County Westmeath, and it is definitely more women coming in on a regular basis, looking for support, guidance. We're so lucky, certainly over here in the Republic of Ireland, that we've got such an extensive support system for businesses, whether they're brand new startups or whether they're fully established long term businesses. And they're getting the right recognition and the right support these days. A true wealthy, healthy budget of money is being set aside for them to help them. Yeah.
Esther
And I think something that also triggered a lot of people into starting their business was the pandemic. So you had all these people who maybe got laid off or were working in jobs that had to close during the pandemic that were traditionally retail jobs, which is where you see a lot of women working and not just working, but owning. So a lot of those companies had to shut their doors, at least in the UK and Ireland, for many, many weeks. And what did they do in the meantime, when there was no no income coming in, there was nothing they could do, they started their own business. So maybe they were previously an employee who's now turned into a business owner, because another statistic that she mentioned that, again, this is specifically for the US, but half of the startups in 2021 were created by women. And in 2019, that was 28% lower in 2019. So you've got... Sorry, it was 28% of startups in 2019 were led by females. And just two years later, it had gone up to 49%. So that definitely triggered that. And I would hope that a lot of those have maintained because we know that starting a business isn't easy. Keeping it going after two years is even harder. So we really hope that a lot of those have been able to come about and stick with it.
Melanie
I think what motivates people to start a business, especially since the pandemic, is they've realised that some of them had an existential crisis and gone, No, we only get so much time. We don't get to rehearse this life. We only get one chance. After going through this, I think I should be brave, put my big girl pants on and set up my dream. I think that's made such a difference to people, although it was horrible for everybody. And lots of people have lost people. I did, too, through the pandemic. But I think if you understand that this isn't a tryout, you don't get a practice session in life, you've got to reach for the stars. And a lot of people did. I think some people have also realised how unhappy their staff are as well. Because They felt unvalued or not supported enough. The pandemic also helped people understand because a point 23 on Louisa Zhou's blog is, almost half the employees in women-led firms are offered upskilling programmes. So women in businesses are more likely to provide training and upskilling opportunities to their workers. A reported 45% of the employees in firms led by women were offered extra training that encourages knowledge, building, personal development, and empowerment. I mean, that's fantastic.
Esther
But it does come down to... All of this is reminded me of the conversation we had with Carol a couple of weeks ago about archetypes. And females tend to fall into the carer and the nurturing end of it. So that is logical to me that women will want their teams to grow and build and succeed. And I'm not saying that men don't want that, but I think a lot of men might feel the competition would be too great if their employees knew more than they did, for example. Whereas I have no problem teaching someone. And I think that's also where you do the training and stuff so you want people to have the same knowledge that you do and be able to do it for themselves. Whereas a lot of other companies will just say, "I'll do it for you".
Melanie
I've trained other social media managers and social media trainers, people who want to compete with me. But at the end of the day, there is no such thing as competition. But no, it's just we just wanted to spend some time thinking about all the amazing, brave, courageous, strong women. I can think of two or three immediately, Esther being one of them.
Esther
Thank you.
Melanie
And then we've got Samantha Kelly and Joanne Sweeney down here in the Republic who, absolute kudos and respect to all three ladies. They will work damn hard and they've got true recognition for their incredible skill sets.
Esther
Yeah. And like we say, Lucy Hall over in England. There are just so, so many. There are far too many to mention. I mean, if we did, we'd be here for another hour or more going through all the females that we knew. And we haven't even touched on the ones that we know in America.
Melanie
That's true.
Esther
There are just so, so many. We just wanted to make this episode about celebrating them, about, like I said, we could name hundreds and hundreds more, but just use this week, this International Women's Day that's coming up. And yes, for any men that are listening, there is an International Men's Day in November, so don't feel left out. Do just thank the women that own businesses locally to you. Go and buy a coffee from your local coffee shop, which is probably run by a woman and owned by a woman. The local clothes shop. I'm just thinking of my own small town here. Most of the places, except for the takeaways, are owned and run by women. But the supermarkets are all owned by women. Just go and thank them. And maybe use this as motivation to increase your women inside your own business. If you're outsourcing, if you're hiring, look at the women around you that could help. But please only hire them if they're good for the job.
Melanie
Well, yeah, absolutely.
Esther
Right. That's it for today, guys. Thanks very much for listening to us. And we hope to have you back with us next week for more Monday Morning Marketing. Until then, bye bye.
Melanie
Bye.
